Spir Dynamics 1666-1746 5/28/00
A. Introduction.
1. The doctrine of reciprocal love expresses the mutual love relationship between God and the Church Age believer the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in which the believer responds to the perfect love of God in kind. The believer responds to God’s love by producing virtue love through the execution of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. Therefore, reciprocity results in salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. The response of the believer to all the blessings of salvation, time, and eternity is reciprocal love for God.
2. Reciprocity includes eternal love of God for the Church Age believer. Reciprocity means a mutual giving and receiving. The mutual giving started in eternity past, when God knew all about us. Receiving reciprocal love is a matter of understanding the doctrine of reciprocal love for God. Reciprocity is God’s love for the believer in eternity past, and through that love provides blessings and advantages and privileges and happiness superior to anything mankind has to offer. 3. The potential for reciprocal love for God from the Church Age believer is accomplished through the spiritual life of the Church Age. Reciprocal love for God is the greatest spiritual life in all of human history. This is why so many unique things have been given to the Church Age believers.
4. Reciprocity began in eternity past before any creature existed. This was a part of antecedent grace. God knew everything about us and loved us in eternity past.
5. The Church Age is the dispensation of the demonstration of reciprocal love for God. Reciprocity only occurs during the Church Age because of the pre-historic angelic conflict and the rebuttal of the Prosecution.
6. God’s love for us never diminishes. Now we have the opportunity to reciprocate through personal love for Him and impersonal love for all mankind.
7. With reciprocal love we can solve our own problems and have a far greater happiness beyond all we could ask or think.
8. We do not get to reciprocal love overnight. We must attain a personal sense of destiny first—the beginning of the adult spiritual life. Then we move on to personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind. Most people do not have what it takes to keep going, because they are easily distracted. The greatest distractions to personal love for God are other believers. 9. Without virtue-love we are nothing, we gain nothing, 1 Cor 13:2-3. Our life is meaningless without reciprocal love for God. We have a an attitude toward people that we have never had before and an attitude toward God that we have never had before. We come at this point to share in the happiness of God, which eventuates in occupation with Christ.
10. Personal love for God is reciprocation. We have a mutual relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit on the one hand, and the Church Age believer on the other hand.
11. The Stages of Reciprocity.
a. The first stage of reciprocity is personal love for God and impersonal love for mankind.
b. The second stage of reciprocity is sharing the happiness of God.
c. The third stage of reciprocity is occupation with Christ.
12. Reciprocal love for God is the greatest motivator in the life. Competition among Christians is the worst motivator.
13. We have a completed canon of Scripture, so that we could reciprocate to His love.
14. The fulfillment of reciprocal love for God includes grace benefits that never before existed in the history of the human race. For example, the indwelling of the Trinity and the universal priesthood of believers.
15. The challenge of reciprocity is the witness for Christ in the Church Age, the dispensation of the rebuttal phase of Satan’s appeal trial.
16. Reciprocity results in salvation through faith in Christ and benefits given at salvation plus the greater benefits after salvation plus the blessings of the eternal state.
17. Reciprocity is enduring love.
a. Reciprocity is the aggressive function of the soul in vigorous pursuit of cognition, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine, which is tantamount to enduring devotion.
b. Enduring devotion is intense love for and profound dedication to consecration and occupation with God; hence, dedication to God based on the metabolized Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.
c. Consecration is the dedication to the harmonious rapport with God as a mature believer, resulting in the advance to pleroma status (reciprocity).
d. Respect for God is the response to the grace of God as the ultimate expression of God’s love from divine integrity. Respect demands the fulfillment of Prov 3:34 as quoted in Jam 4:6 and 1 Pet 5:5, “...but He gives grace to the humble believer.” This grace is a part of the integrity of God. The integrity of God is the love of God.
e. The spiritual life goes deeper than casual knowledge and relationship; for the love for God demands both categories of true love (enduring love and respect for God).
(1) Enduring love as the aggressive function of the soul in vigorous pursuit of cognition, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine. This is tantamount to enduring devotion.
(2) Respect for God, which includes every aspect of worship: admiration, deference, esteem, consideration, partiality. Respect is response to the grace of God as the ultimate expression of God’s love from divine integrity. Respect is the believer’s response to the love of God, expressed in the grace of God. The only true worship of God is under the principle of respect.
f. We must never think of love as separate from integrity.
g. We learn to love the Lord through doctrine. We learn to respect the Lord through discipline. There is no love of God in our life unless we have virtue and integrity in our soul.
18. To be promotable in the spiritual life we must be compatible with the integrity of God.
B. Scripture.
1. We must first understand the phrase HE AGAPE TOU THEOU.
a. HE AGAPE is the definite article and Greek noun of action, “love.”
b. TOU THEOU is the genitive from the definite article and noun THEOS, meaning, “God.”
c. The genitive can be a subjective or objective genitive. The subjective genitive is translated “the love of God.” The objective genitive is translated “the love for God.” If God is producing the action, then we have a subject genitive. If God is receiving the action of being loved, then we have a subjective genitive. When the word in the genitive receives the action of the noun of action, then the genitive is an objective genitive and should be translated “the love for God.” When the word in the genitive produces the action of the noun of action, then the genitive is an subjective genitive and translated “the love of God. If the noun in the genitive receives the action, then we have an objective genitive.
d. The “love of God” is God’s love toward us, which is God’s integrity. The “love for God” is our love toward God in reciprocity.
2. There are two great passages of Scripture related to this doctrine.
a. 1 Jn 4:12-19, which ends up by saying, “we love because He first loved us.”
b. 1 Cor 13:4-8.
3. Other Related Passages.
a. 1 Jn 2:5, “but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love for God has been completed.”
(1) The word in the genitive “God” receives the action of the noun of action “love.” Therefore, the correct translation is “the love for God.”
(2) “Love for God” is our reciprocal love directed toward Jesus Christ, and is dogmatically declared by the objective genitive with the noun of action. The definite article is a monadic definite article, which means, this love is one of a kind.
(3) Our love for God is completed through the execution of the spiritual life through the power of the Holy Spirit and momentum through metabolized doctrine.
h. Rom 5:5, “Christ in you the confidence of glory, and absolute confidence does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the personal agency of the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us for our benefit.”
(1) “Absolute confidence [hope] does not disappoint us” means that we have taken in enough Scripture so that we now understand that God knew all about us in eternity past and loved us so much that Jesus Christ was judged for every one of us. So hope does not disappoint us, when it is responsive to the love of God in eternity past. We are never disappointed by God. Col 1:27, “to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is, Christ indwelling you, the confidence of glory.”
(2) The love of God is the subjective genitive and produces the action implied by the noun of action (“love”) .The subjective genitive noun of action indicates that God loved all mankind in eternity past with emphasis on the believer. The objective genitive noun of action is not stated in this verse, but is stated in terms of reciprocity through the personal agency of the Holy Spirit. The love that comes from God and produces our love for God has been poured out in our hearts.
(3) God’s love for us in eternity past is the source of our reciprocated love for Him in time.
(4) Reciprocation can only come through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit as our Mentor and our Teacher.
(5) The power of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine is the basis for reciprocal love.
(6) We have the opportunity for reciprocation in love for God as no one else in history, because the spiritual life, which Jesus Christ used in His humanity, has now been given to us.
(7) The Greek phrase HE AGAPE TOU THEOU in this verse is unique, because it is a plenary genitive, combining both the subjective and objective genitive in one sentence. Because the genitive with the noun of action has the exact same words for two difference phrases, both categories (subjective and objective) cannot occur in the same Greek sentence. Therefore, when the plenary genitive occurs, the phrase HE AGAPE TOU THEOU can only occur once, whether it is subjective or objective. The one not used must be implied by a different construction in the sentence. The subjective genitive is stated first because the love of God was poured out in our hearts first.
b. Gal 5:22, “The profit of the Spirit is virtue-love, ...”
(1) The word KARPOS means “gain, profit, advantage” as well as “fruit.”
(2) The profit, gain, advantage of the filling of the Spirit is virtue-love.
c. 1 Pet 1:8, “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you are not seeing Him now but believing [faith-perception], you greatly rejoiced with inexpressible happiness, thinking your way to glory.” The perfect passive participle of the verb DOXZAZO (which is translated “full of glory”) is an idiom, which means that by loving God now in time we glorify God in the eternal state.
d. Eph 3:17, “so that Christ may be at home in your hearts through doctrine, when you have been rooted and established in virtue-love.”
e. 2 Cor 5:14, “The love for Christ sustains us.”
f. 1 Cor 13:2, 3, “If I do not have virtue-love, I am nothing.” “If I do not have virtue-love, I gain nothing.”
g. Eph 3:19-21, “and to get to know the love for Christ which surpasses knowledge, in order that you may be filled resulting in all the fulness of blessing from the source of God. Now to Him (God the Father) who is able to do infinitely more than all we could ask or think on the basis of the power that keeps working in us, to Him the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus with reference to all generations of this unique dispensation of the ages.”
h. 1 Cor 2:9, “But just as it stands written, ‘Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard nor has it entered into the heart of mankind all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’”
i. 1 Thes 5:8, “But since we are of the day [we can see what’s going on], let us attain spiritual self-esteem, after we have put on the breastplate of faith [four stages of the faith-rest drill] and virtue-love.”
j. Rom 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.” The power behind everything is the love of God.
k. 2 Thes 3:5, “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the staying power (perseverance, endurance) of Christ.”
C. Introductory Principles.
1. In eternity past, each member of the Trinity had perfect, eternal love for each other. They co-existed in perfect harmony and love for each other. The love of each member of the Trinity for each other provided a fantastic relationship and a happiness beyond description. 2. Because God has omniscience, God loved all believers in eternity past. He knew everyone of us as Church Age believers and the wonderful spiritual life that would be given to us because of the work of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union.
3. God loved us in eternity past no matter how we would fail in time.
4. The Personality of God.
a. God has personality. Personality denotes self-consciousness and self-determination. Self-consciousness always precedes self- determination. We do not have self-determination without self- consciousness.
b. Each member of the Trinity recognizes himself to be a person, and as such, God acts rationally.
c. Infinity describes God as without boundary or limitation, uniting in Himself those perfections which belong to His character.
d. Therefore, God cannot be complicated with ignorance or absurdities, emotion or irrationality.
e. Infinity is theological nomenclature, used to describe all that God does including the function of His integrity, composed of righteousness, justice, and love.
f. In eternity past, God existed in three persons with identical essence. Self-existence is the first principle of infinity. Eternal, divine existence is the meaning of infinity, and that is where the personality of God starts.
g. God is governed by His own integrity. Therefore, each person of the Trinity functions from righteousness, justice, and love.
(1) God must always act in accordance with His own righteousness, justice, and love, and He never acts outside of His integrity.
(2) If the integrity of God requires punishment for sin, and it does, God is not free to disregard or omit punishment. Can God forgive sin apart from satisfaction or propitiation of His righteous claims? Not so long as He is righteous. Righteousness and justice demands satisfaction, but loves solves the problem.
(3) To forgive without satisfaction or propitiation would be to fail in the proper function of His divine integrity. What would be destroyed if God let us get away with anything? His love.
(4) God’s integrity cannot be satisfied unless all sins are judged. God’s integrity cannot be satisfied apart from the judgment of sin.
(5) God’s love has found a way to solve the problem of our sin and the satisfaction of His justice apart from our righteousness and justice, and He solved the problem with His love, not with His righteousness and justice. Love is the solution in the integrity of God, but God’s love can never be divorced from His righteousness and justice.
(6) Atonement is the judgment of every sin in history. There is no such thing as reciprocal love with God where sin is concerned. There is no way we will ever have blessing from God unless something is done about our sins. Jesus Christ made the decision in eternity past to become the atonement for all the sins ever committed in the history of the human race.
(7) God the Father demands propitiation—that every sin in human history be judged. In that propitiation there must be a basis for reconciliation. Reconciliation is not based on how good we are or what we have done or are doing for God. Reconciliation is based on faith in the judgment of Christ of the Cross as our substitute to reconcile us to God. This is called the redemption solution, and includes atonement, propitiation, and reconciliation. This is accomplished through the greatest motivation in history—divine love. This is expressed in grace, Eph 2:8-9.
(8) Why does the Scripture say when we sin we are punished? Heb 12:6, “Whom the Lord loves, He punishes.” Does He punish us for the sins we commit? No. why? They were punished on the Cross. So the basis for our punishment is our grieving, quenching, and lying to the Holy Spirit, when we sin. We are punished for our failure to execute the spiritual life. When we use the rebound technique (1 Jn 1:9) and acknowledge our sins to God, God forgives us our sins and purifies us from all wrongdoing. Col 1:14, “in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
(9) Why should Christ be judged for the sins of the world, if any other means of salvation were available? Because no other means of salvation was available. Jesus Christ provided the only solution that was available by becoming true humanity and going to the Cross as a substitute for us. God’s love for us has never diminished or changed, because He loves His own righteousness and justice.
(a) Ps 33:5, “He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.” When you love something that is right, you will do it.
(b) Ps 89:14, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; unfailing love and doctrine go before You.”
(10) Do affections (emotion or sentiment in human love) belong to God? The absolute attributes of God are on a higher plain than human affections, including love. Therefore, any category of emotion is not a part of divine essence. In the word of God, affections are ascribed to God as anthropopathisms to explain divine policy. Because God is perfect virtue, His love is totally devoid of sin, human good, altruism, or any source of evil reaction or emotion. Since God is always has been and always will be perfect love and virtue, He does not fall in love. God’s love cannot be complicated by ignorance, absurdities, silliness, or emotion. God’s love cannot be bribed or patronized or compromised by human works, legalism, or Christian activism. No matter what happens to believers in time, there is not greater security than the eternal and perfect personal love of God, whether the believer is spiritual or carnal, winner or loser. Therefore, the personal love of God guarantees eternal relationship with God forever, even the most sinful and evil believers who ever exist.
5. When you love someone, you must respect them. The first concept in human love must always be respect. Respect must come before rapport or be a part of rapport. Respect is the major factor in love in any category.
6. Respect is the higher form of love and purity of motivation. There is a lot of love without purity of motivation.
7. Respect is the highway of reciprocity or reciprocal love for God. Reciprocal love for God is a new lease on life (a chance to enter a happiness and tranquility that you never experienced before), not a new leash on life. A lot of love has many strings attached.
8. Reciprocal love for God is a part of what is found in Jam 4:6 that God gives us greater grace at the moment of salvation and that God makes war against the arrogant believer and gives grace to the humble believer. The beginning of the understanding of the fantastic love we have from God and responding to it is the humbling fact that we have been loved by God for billions of years.
D. Reciprocal Love For God.
1. When you truly come to love someone, you respect them. Respect is the higher form of love and purity of motivation. Respect is the highway of reciprocity.
2. Reciprocal love has a great tranquility, knowing that we will remain here as long as the Lord wants us to be here. Our Lord was willing to go to the Cross for us because of His personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, and a perfect tranquility in His human nature.
3. Now we can have this personal love for God the Father, impersonal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God, and occupation with Christ, which produces reciprocal love for each member of the Trinity.
4. Reciprocal love for God is our response to God’s love for us from eternity past. Reciprocity is personal love for God by the Church Age believer, which is accomplished through the execution of the unique spiritual life of human history.
5. Reciprocal love for God is one of the highest motivations, one of the most fantastic things that can ever come into our life.
6. Reciprocal love was given to us at salvation as a potential, but it does not come until we reach a personal sense of destiny. With it comes the greatest happiness in the world and tranquility.
a. Everyone is living their life on the basis of adventure, which is a waste of time. Adventurers are not good lovers, are not stable in life, are not dependable, are always changing their mind, are always seeking greater excitement or something more.
b. But the basis for stability in life is tranquility. Tranquility means you have a system of values that you would not change for anything in the world.
c. Tranquility begins with reciprocal love for God. You stop reacting toward people; you stop being an irritable person.
d. Tranquility under pressure equals wisdom.
7. Worship is a matter of reciprocity. 1 Jn 4:16, “We have come to know and have believed the virtue-love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in that love remains in association with God, and God remains in association with him.”
a. This is reciprocal love for God, tantamount to fellowship with God under the principle of harmonious rapport with God. The believer remains in harmonious rapport with God through reciprocal love for God.
b. Reciprocal love for God is the execution of the postsalvation spiritual life through the power and mentorship of God the Holy Spirit as per Jn 14:26.
c. Reciprocity brings a new kind of love to worship and subsequent execution of the unique spiritual life, and these occur simultaneously. Reciprocity is worship as well as spiritual advance. They are simultaneous. When you have one, you have the other.
d. Reciprocity brings in occupation with Christ and with it worship, which results in honor and maximum homage directed to all three members of the Trinity.
e. The combination of the fulfillment of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age and reciprocal love for God then becomes the highest form of life on this planet.
8. The first reciprocal love toward God is to believe in Jesus Christ as savior.
9. We cannot find ourself until we find God in reciprocal love.
a. Once we see the invisible God through the perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine Our reciprocal love for God motivates true spiritual self-esteem. Only true spiritual self-esteem has the ability and capacity to respond to the love of God.
b. Spiritual self-esteem has the ability to love and be loved.
c. Spiritual self-esteem plus impersonal love destroys inordinate competition for someone else’s love.
d. The power of God the Holy Spirit under spiritual self-esteem is never insecure in love and affection and never feels threatened by arrogance or jealousy. Self-changing your life and personality and lifestyle is a major tenet of arrogance and legalism. Spirituality is not changing your lifestyle.
e. Your reciprocity must keep up with your intake of doctrine. They have to advance together. Your love for God cannot advance without the increase of doctrinal understanding in your soul, and your doctrinal understanding cannot advance without your love for God.
f. Spiritual self-esteem is the beginning of a true change of character, not of personality.
g. Spiritual self-esteem is the fulfillment of divine blessing related to reciprocal love for God.
E. Reciprocal love for God is the basis for eternal rewards.
1. Jam 1:12, “Happy [is] the person who perseveres under testing; for when he passes the test, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
2. Testing is generally associated with pressure and stress, which is not normally associated with happiness, but here it is. Persevering under testing is the opportunity for spiritual growth, the opportunity to apply your love for God to the pressure and testing. 3. Reciprocal love for God under pressure and testing is knowing that God has never let you down and never will. 4. The believer who uses reciprocal love for God to persevere and endure the testing and pressure will receive the eternal reward of the crown of life. As Bible doctrine increases in the human soul there is a understanding in the soul that creates a system of worship that keeps place with our spiritual advance. We have a simultaneous advance between perception and metabolization of doctrine and an increase in worship that combines with the Scripture we have learned. This is what our Lord meant when He said, “They that worship Me must worship Me by means of the Holy Spirit and by means of the truth (of the word of God),” Jn 4:24. Worship is a mental attitude which results in its fulfillment in occupation with Christ.
5. Reciprocity or reciprocal love for God will inevitably result in the highest decoration of the crown of life.
6. Reciprocity brings a new kind of love to worship and simultaneously to the execution of the unique spiritual life of all human history. Christian worship is reciprocal love for God, not works, not ritual.
7. This same love for God motivates the execution of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. Therefore, the spiritual advance to PLEROMA status and maximum glorification of God is simultaneous with the function of reciprocity.
8. Fulfillment of reciprocal love for God is the highest form of spiritual life that can possibly exist. This is the invisible impact of that winner believer.
9. The verb AGAPAO refers here to reciprocal personal love for God.
10. Rev 2:10, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Note that the Devil is about to cast some of you into prison that you may be tested, and you will have special persecution ten times. Keep on being faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life.”
11. 1 Jn 4:17, “Because of this (PLEROMA status), reciprocal-love has been brought to completion with us, that we may have confidence in the day of evaluation; because just as He is, so also are we in this world.”
a. God has provided all of these things for us, and we respond with confidence. Confidence sets aside all the inconsequentials in life.
b. Every Church Age believer will be evaluated on one principle: the spiritual life that we have received demands responsibility—that we make responsible decisions, that we establish a scale of values that is so high that it motivates us through love for God to enter into the execution of this spiritual life and make Bible doctrine number one on our scale of values.
c. “Just as He is” refers to the prototype spiritual life of our Lord during the hypostatic union. “So also are we” refers to the operational spiritual life of the Church Age.
d. 1 Jn 2:28, “Now, little children, stay in fellowship with Him, that if He should appear, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”
12. 1 Pet 1:8, “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you are not seeing Him now, but believing, you greatly rejoice, full of glory.”
13. Col 1:27, “Christ indwelling you, the absolute confidence of glory.
F. Reciprocal Love and Corporate Testing.
1. Every system of authority has three categories.
a. The first category is related to management, leadership, and change of command.
b. The second category is the objective for the system derived from its management. Authority must have objectives.
c. A policy for the execution or fulfillment of the objective. There has to be a system to fulfill the objective.
2. A system is defined as an organization composed of people under the command of other people, functioning under a policy, which is designed to fulfill a specific objective. a. Illustrations of a system: business organizations, military services, professional organizations—medical, law firms, engineering, etc., church organizations, denominations, athletic organizations, the divine institution of marriage, governments.
b. There are good and bad organizations, good and bad systems, good and bad leadership and authority, good and bad policies, and good and bad objectives. Therefore, there are many areas of system testing related to people, policy, and purposes of any given organization. c. Because no one is perfect and everyone has an old sin nature, personnel, policy, and purpose often conflict.
3. Three areas of system testing exist.
a. Personality conflict within the organization. Unfair and unjust treatment from someone in charge, playing favorites.
b. Policy pressures in the system. The testing comes from policy that is unreasonable or policy that conflicts with normal living or policy that conflicts with norms and standards or policy that is stupid and still enforced.
c. Pressure in fulfilling the objective of the organization. Unreasonable objectives that are impossible to execute; lack of ability to fulfill the objectives; conflict of personal life with the objectives. The greatest enemy of any organization is arrogance plus incapability plus laziness plus distraction by wrong priorities plus ignorance equals ineptizoid people.
4. Reciprocal love motivation is the divine solution to corporate authority problems.
a. For the Christian to glorify God in corporate environment, the believer must be motivated by the simultaneous advance in two spheres of the spiritual life.
(1) The advance in the perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.
(2) The advance in reciprocity—love for God.
b. There are three stages in the advance of the spiritual life, which are significant: spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, spiritual invincibility. Beginning with the motivation of spiritual self-esteem, the believer can deal with the unfair policy and treatment from management, because these advances in the spiritual life represent the function of reciprocity.
(1) You put the matter in the Lord’s hands and carry on doing your job as unto the Lord. You continue to have impersonal love for all. Together these move you to occupation with Christ.
(2) Beginning with the motivation of spiritual self-esteem, the believer can deal with unfair policy and treatment from management and go right on and do his or her job.
(3) Your motivation for passing the testing is continuing to do your job as unto the Lord.
c. Motivation to pass system testing comes from reciprocal love for God.
(1) Reciprocal love for God motivation does not complain because the love for God is the point of reference for the spiritual life, not competition with others.
(2) Reciprocal love does not become involved in organizational conspiracy.
(3) Impersonal love as a part of reciprocal love does not get involved in personality conflict.
(4) Through the function of the faith-rest drill plus the right application of metabolized doctrine, you do not complain about unfair treatment, but put the matter in the hands of the supreme court of heaven and carry on. The person who hangs in there under system testing and does a good job will be promoted by the Lord.
d. While arrogant leadership is unfair, the grace of God expressed in reciprocal love sees corporate testing as the opportunity to glorify God.
e. By combining the function of the faith-rest drill plus the right application of metabolized doctrine with reciprocal love for God motivation the believer does not complain, but puts the matter in the hands of the Supreme Court of Heaven.
f. Every time you quit an organization under the testing of unfair treatment, you have not only flunked the test, but you have failed to advance to the high ground on that occasion. Just because you flunk a test once does not mean that it is all over. You will have another chance under other circumstances. Prov 24:10, “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength?”
g. The believer who hangs in there under testing and is motivated by reciprocity to do a good job will be vindicated and promoted by the Lord. 5. Col 3:17-4:1, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Wives, submit to the authority of your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and stop being bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, so that they will not become discouraged. Labor obey management in everything, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but with virtue of the stream of consciousness, respecting the Lord. Whatever you do, keep functioning from your own soul, as to the Lord and not to mankind, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of your inheritance. You serve the Lord Christ. For anyone who does wrongdoing will receive the consequences of that wrongdoing, and there is no partiality. Management, provide for your employees what is right and fair, because you know that you too have a Manager in heaven.”
a. Reciprocity has the power to accept authority in a system without becoming arrogant.
b. Reciprocal love has the power to handle unjust and unfair treatment or any authority problem that may exist. Reciprocal love has the power to put the case before the supreme court of heaven and leave it there.
c. Reciprocal love carries out the policy of management without becoming bitter or discouraged or conspiratorial.
d. Reciprocal love fulfills the objective of the organization no matter how incompetent, inefficient, or unreasonable others in the organization may be.
e. System testing is a major source of peer pressure.
f. Reciprocal love has the power to put the problem in the Lord’s hands and carry on without bitterness, implacability, self-pity, hatred, revenge motivation and function.
g. What God does not remove, He intends for us to bear.
h. The husband must take the responsibility of becoming a leader in marriage. You do not become a leader by doing something to punish your wife. Bitterness is your failure to take responsibility for your decision to marry someone.
i. You serve the Lord by recognizing legitimate authority.
j. Summary.
(1) Reciprocal love has the power to accept authority in a system without becoming involved in the sins of arrogance and emotion.
(2) Reciprocal love executes the policy of management without bitterness or discouragement.
(3) Reciprocal love fulfills the objectives of the organization no matter how incompetent, inefficient, or unreasonable others in the corporation may be.
(4) While system testing is a major source of peer pressure, reciprocal love motivation has the power to carry on without sinful reaction.
(5) Reciprocal love has the power to put the problem in the Lord’s hands under the doctrinal principle of a personal sense of destiny.
(6) 1 Jn 5:3, “And this is love for God that we keep His mandates, and His commandments are not difficult to fulfill.”
(7) 1 Jn 2:5, “Whoever guards His word, truly in him the love for God has been brought to completion.”
6. 1 Cor 10:13, “No testing has overtaken you but such as is common to mankind; in fact God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able (to bear), but with the testing will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
7. The result of passing system testing is happiness, Jam 1:12, “Happy [is] the individual believer who perseveres under testing; for having been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” 8. To avoid becoming a source of system testing to others, the believer must understand the difference between management and leadership in the exercise of authority.
a. Leadership motivates; management regulates.
b. Leadership establishes authority through virtue, integrity, and honor; management uses enforcement of petty, bureaucratic regulations as a system of bullying and unjust treatment.
c. Leadership delegates authority; management hordes authority through bullying and unfair treatment of subordinates.
d. Leadership encourages efficiency and good ideas; management resents good ideas and is jealous of efficiency.
e. Leadership produces esprit-de-corps; management creates frustration, dissatisfaction, dishonesty, laziness, and conspiracy.
f. Leadership creates integrity; management creates inordinate ambition and destroys job integrity.
g. The leader type pastor teaches doctrine faithfully and does not interfere with the privacy of the believer’s priesthood. He expresses his love through the accurate teaching of the doctrine. The manager type pastor develops a program dependence by which he seeks to regulate the life of the congregation. The leader-pastor delegates authority to the members of the congregation, while the manager-pastor retains all the authority and bullies or courts his congregation.
h. Leadership delegates authority; management abuses authority.
i. Leadership establishes authority through the teaching of Bible doctrine; management establishes influence through programs, sharing, counseling, creates lonely-hearts clubs, or a disneyland type atmosphere.
j. Leadership produces response; management produces reaction.
k. To fulfill the objective, leadership teaches, while management bullies and shames his congregation.
l. Leadership gets attention; management wants attention, but does not get it.
m. Leadership improves government, military, law enforcement, business, athletics, academics, etc. Management undermines the morale and esprit-de-corps of the same.
n. Leadership encourages; management discourages.
o. Leadership brings integrity into an organization; management brings pettiness into an organization.
p. Spiritual autonomy flourishes under leadership, but is tested under management.
q. Leadership provides inspiration; management provides testing.
G. Reciprocal Love in Serving God.
1. Reciprocal love is our motivation for serving God.
2. When we are motivated by personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind, then you begin to share the happiness of God and do not need supervision.
3. Sharing the happiness of God as a part of Christian service helps us to be careful to not be critical of others.
H. There is no fear in reciprocal love for God.
1. 1 Jn 4:18, “There is no fear in reciprocal-love; but mature love casts out fear, because fear keeps on having punishment, and the one who fears has not been brought to completion by reciprocal-love.”
a. The background for this passage is found in 1 Jn 4:16, “And so we have come to know and we have believed the virtue-love that God has for us. God is love and the one who remains in that love remains in association with God and God remains in association with him.”
(1) “God remains in association with him” has to do with eternity past, when God knew all about us through omniscience.
(2) When it says that “God is virtue-love,” it means that we cannot diminish the love of God by our failures and we cannot expand it by our success.
(3) God’s love for us brings on reciprocation. Reciprocal love is the recognition that there is a higher and greater love than has ever existed before in history.
b. There is no fear in virtue-love because:
(1) Virtue-love is associated with divine love as the point of reference for the spiritual life.
(2) Virtue-love is associated with the definition of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age—harmonious rapport with God.
(3) Virtue-love is associated with the advanced stage of the spiritual life as per occupation with Christ.
(4) Divine love as the point of reference for the spiritual life is associated with the word PLEROMA, the highest form of spiritual life, maximum glorification of God, as per Eph 3:19, “and come to know the love for Christ resulting in all the fulness of blessing from God.”
2. Love does not produce fear, but harmonious rapport with God.
3. Reciprocal love for God is the motivator for the spiritual life. There is no motivation as strong as motivation in your own soul. If you have to be pushed along by the whip of the taskmaster, if you have to be threatened, then there is something wrong with that. It is not leadership.
4. When we come to know the love of Christ, then from it comes the fulness of blessing from God.
5. Things that cause fear and wipe out virtue-love include: guilt, bitterness, and emotional sins. Emotional sins are distractions to the spiritual life and understanding the integrity of God. Fear wipes out understanding your salvation, rebound, and fulfilling the spiritual life of the Church Age.
a. What the righteousness of God condemns, the justice of God judges, but always through the love of God as expressed in the grace of God.
b. What the righteousness of God commends, the justice of God blesses through the love of God as expressed in the grace of God.
6. Fear and the function of our spiritual life are mutually exclusive. We are either in fear or in the spiritual life. If we are under the control of the Spirit, then there is no fear; we have virtue-love. But if we are under the control of our sin nature, then we are in a state of fear every time we are tested.
a. 2 Tim 1:7, “For God has not given us a lifestyle of fear, but of power and of virtue-love and of sound judgment.”
b. Ps 56:2-3, “My enemies have trampled upon me all day long; for many fight against me with arrogance. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”
c. The alternative to fear is the function of the four stages of the faith-rest drill. Fear sees the problem, but faith sees the solution. Rom 4:18-21
d. Virtue-love is compatible with divine integrity because it reflects divine love as a part of the integrity of God. Divine love is always compatible with divine righteousness in the function of the integrity of God.
e. The more we increase the power of fear in our life, the greater our failure to execute the spiritual mechanics of this unique spiritual life.
(1) The more things you surrender to fear, the more things you fear.
(2) The extent to which you surrender to fear, the greater your capacity for fear.
(3) The greater your capacity for fear, the more you increase the power of fear in your life.
(4) The more you increase the power of fear in your life, the greater your failure to execute the unique spiritual life of all human history.
(5) Fear as an emotional sin is both irrational and irresponsible, resulting in garbage in the subconscious and distraction from the spiritual life of the Church Age. Therefore, the believer has the function of the emotional complex of sins and the utilization of the arrogance complex of sins.
(6) Fear replaces Bible doctrine with the attack of the four horsemen of apostasy: emotional revolt of the soul, locked-in negative volition, blackout of the soul, and scar tissue of the soul. Fear panics, when the four horsemen attack, and the believer loses the battle of stress in the soul.
f. No believer can advance to spiritual maturity through fear or the deployment of the arrogance skills (self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption).
7. Fear creates stress in the soul.
a. Adversity is the outside pressure of life—outside the soul. Adversity is constantly punching at your soul. Stress is the inside pressure of the soul.
b. Stress is what you do to yourself; adversity is what circumstances do to you. We do not have to let the circumstances of life get into the soul as stress.
c. Adversity is inevitable; stress is optional.
d. Stress in the soul contradicts the unique spiritual life of the Church Age and produces fear, panic, and hysteria.
e. When stress breaks through the FLOT line and overruns the command post of the soul, the only solution is the divine solution: rebound and counterattack (Phil 3:13-14).
f. All divine solutions to carnality begin with rebound (1 Jn 1:9). The results of rebound include: recovery of the filling of the Spirit, restoration to fellowship with God, resumption of our spiritual life.
8. Fear keeps on having punishment, which is unbearable divine punishment to the believer to wake him up. We are going to having testing, but testing is not punishment for sin. 9. We must distinguish between fear and concern.
a. Fear is a sin; concern relates to something important, like the filling of the Spirit and gives number one priority to Bible doctrine.
b. Concern is the sense of responsibility, honor, and integrity related to the divine mandates given to the Church Age believer.
10. There is no fear of dying in virtue-love, Mt 10:28-31, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So stop being afraid; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
a. There is no fear in virtue-love. Therefore, there should be no fear of death for the believer with virtue-love.
b. Therefore, the manifestation of divine love in dying is important to understand. No matter how you sin or fail, death is God’s victory.
c. The death of any believer is based on the virtue, integrity, and love of God. What the righteousness of God decides (the death of the believer), the justice of God executes it, but it is executed through the love of God.
d. If the integrity of God cares for the sparrow and his death, and He does, how much more will the integrity of God care for the believer in Jesus Christ, who is threatened by death.
e. Therefore, we are to have no fear of dying. If we are afraid of dying, then there is something wrong with our spiritual. We are not using the spiritual life.
I. Rebound restores reciprocal love.
1. 1 Jn 1:8-10, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous with the results that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from all wrongdoing. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”
a. “If we say we have no sin” is the first arrogance skill— self-justification. “We are deceiving ourselves” is the second arrogance skill—self-deception. “If we say that we have not sinned” is a combination of the third arrogance skill—self-absorption plus denial.
b. 1 Jn 1:8 and 10 is a case of rejecting rebound when it is taught or to find an excuse for rejecting it.
c. There is nothing more important in the spiritual life and there is no greater inheritance in history than that which has been given to the Church Age believer. Rebound is a part of that inheritance.
d. If the believer names his sins to God, the result is forgiveness of sins and recovery of the filling of the Spirit, and the resumption of the spiritual life.
e. Since our sins were judged on the Cross, we cannot again be judged for our sins, but we can be judged for something that results from our sins.
f. There is a distinction here between sins and wrongdoing.
(1) Wrongdoing is described in Eph 4:30 as grieving the Holy Spirit, “Stop grieving the Holy Spirit of God by Whom you were sealed to the day of redemption.” We are not punished for our sins, but we are punished for grieving the Holy Spirit. Those who reject rebound and continue grieving the Holy Spirit are severely punished by the supreme court of heaven. Wrongdoing is grieving the Holy Spirit. Grieving the Holy Spirit is rejection of rebound and perpetuation of carnality until the day you day.
(2) Wrongdoing is described in 1 Thes 5:19 as squelching, quenching, suppressing, stifling the Holy Spirit, “Stop suppressing the Holy Spirit.” Paul is warning against a deliberate suppression of the HOly Spirit by not using the recovery solution of rebound. We suppress the Holy Spirit by perpetual carnality, which is wrongdoing. This is a direct attack on reciprocal love for God. Rejection of rebound is rejection of the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, rejection of rebound is rejection of reciprocal love for God.
g. In the context of 1 Jn 1:6-10 there are five third class conditions.
(1) The carnal believer contradicts Christian fellowship, 1 Jn 1:6.
(2) The spiritual believer has true fellowship with God, 1 Jn 1:7.
(3) The carnal Christian’s denial of the sin nature is characterized by the arrogance skills of self-justification and self- deception, 1 Jn 1:8.
(4) The recovery procedure for the status of carnality, 1 Jn 1:9.
(5) The carnal Christian’s denial of personal sins is characterized by adding self-absorption to the arrogance skills, 1 Jn 1:10.
2. The principle of rebound and keep moving is found in Phil 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not evaluate myself to have attained; but one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind [failures] and pressing forward toward those things which are ahead, I keep advancing toward the objective for the decorations of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
a. “I do not evaluate myself to have attained” means that Paul has not completed his advance to the high ground in the spiritual life. He evaluates himself based on having maximum doctrine in his soul. This was his mirror in the soul into which he could look and make his own self- evaluation. According to his evaluation, personal love for God, impersonal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God, and occupation with Christ were all not yet a part of his life. b. Believers acquire motivation through reciprocal love for God.
c. God always had divine love in eternity past for each one of us, knowing all about us. Therefore, His love is a demonstration to us, designed to motivate us. God demonstrates His love to us and then commends it to us.
d. We advance to spiritual maturity under two concepts: the doctrine that we learn day by day, and at the same time, the response to the love of God in eternity past. We are motivated by the fantastic love that God had for us in eternity past. Both of these must advance together. If one falls by the wayside, the other will too. Doctrinal teaching and motivation from the love of God must advance together.
e. Rom 5:8 teaches that it is God’s loving action that displays His righteousness, “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.”
(1) Therefore, we are motivated by the demonstration of God’s love. God’s love toward us is a demonstration of His love and grace; hence, the explanation of His integrity. We respond to this demonstration of His righteousness by the stimulation of reciprocity in us. This results in the most fantastic spiritual life—reciprocal love for God, which advances us to the unique spiritual life of the Church Age.
(2) God’s love motivates us, but we do not motivate God’s love for us. Divine love is the demonstration of His grace and integrity; hence, through the filling of the Spirit, we are motivated by the love of God for us to advance spiritually.
(3) We as believers respond to this demonstration of His loving action by the stimulation of reciprocal love for God in us, which advances us to the high ground of spiritual maturity.
f. Spiritual momentum does not stop with the counterattack of rebound. Spiritual momentum must keep moving to the high ground of spiritual maturity.
3. David is the classical illustration of a believer using rebound after his sin, Ps 32:5, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will acknowledge my transgression to the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
4. The failure to rebound means the following:
a. No rebound means no spirituality—no filling of the Spirit.
b. No rebound means no spiritual life—we are not living under the power of the Holy Spirit.
c. No rebound means sin nature control of our soul.
d. No rebound means false doctrine in the soul, which means garbage in the subconscious
e. No rebound means three arrogance skills take over our life.
f. No rebound means Christian degeneracy.
5. By rejecting rebound the believer becomes:
a. The enemy of the Cross, Phil 3:18.
b. The enemy of God, Jam 4:4.
c. A psychotic Christian, or double-minded, Jam 4:8.
d. Carnal, sinful, Rom 8:7; 1 Cor 3:1-3.
e. The disciple of the Devil, 1 Jn 3:8.
f. Drifts off course from grace, Gal 5:4.
g. A tortured and unstable soul, 2 Pet 2:7-8, 14.
h. A shipwrecked believer, 1 Tim 1:19.
6. Without rebound:
a. There is no spirituality (Eph 5:18) and no spiritual life (Gal 5:16,18,25).
b. There is no fellowship with God. That means no reciprocity or reciprocal love for God.
c. Without rebound no believer can abandon his own agenda at the door of hope; therefore, no believer can enter the adult spiritual life of virtue-love.
d. The loser believer fails to use rebound, the only recovery procedure.
7. There are three categories of Christian fellowship.
a. Basic Christian fellowship is a Bible teaching situation between a pastor and his congregation, 1 Jn 1:3a.
b. The fellowship of spirituality. The believer has fellowship with God the Holy Spirit only when he is filled with the Spirit.
c. Fellowship with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, 1 Jn 1:3b. 8. All three categories of Christian fellowship contribute to rapport with God. Rapport with God must precede rapport with loved ones and people in general. Social intercourse with other Christians is not fellowship in the biblical sense.
a. 1 Cor 1:9, “God is faithful, through Whom we have been called into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
b. 2 Cor 13:14, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
c. 1 Jn 2:5, “But whoever keeps His word, in Him the love for God has been attained.”
J. Reciprocal love and doctrine are the motivation for the spiritual life, Eph 3:16-17, 19a; 2 Thes 3:5.
1. Simultaneous objectives exist on the high ground of the spiritual maturity. They include occupation with Christ and PLEROMA status. These two areas are the highest point of the spiritual life. They merge to form maximum glorification of God. There is not one single path to the high ground of spiritual maturity, but two simultaneous paths, and they merge when they hit the high ground. One of the paths is the perception and metabolization of doctrine and the other path is the motivation of reciprocal love for God. Both are moving toward the high ground, and when they arrive, they will eventually merge. Motivation from reciprocal love for God and doctrine must go together, if we are going to reach the high ground of spiritual maturity.
2. Both objectives are related to the mentorship and doctrinal teaching of God the Holy Spirit, Jn 14:26 must be compared with:
a. Eph 3:17a, “that Christ may be at home in your hearts through doctrine;”
b. Eph 3:19a, “and get to know the love of Christ, which goes beyond academic knowledge,” and,
c. 2 Thes 3:5, “And may the Lord direct your hearts to the love for God, and to the staying power of Christ [the spiritual life of our Lord].”
3. The motivation of virtue-love and the doctrine of reciprocity meet on the high ground of maximum glorification of God.
4. The motivation of reciprocal love results in the first strategic objective of our spiritual life—occupation with Christ, Eph 3:17.
5. The function of reciprocal love for God becomes the status of PLEROMA, Eph 3:19, “that you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.”
6. PLEROMA status demands simultaneous function of metabolized doctrine and motivational, reciprocal love for God. They must stay together.
a. If you lose out on taking in doctrine on a consistent basis or if you lose out on reciprocal love for God, then one destroys the other. Doctrine is destroyed for lack of motivational love. Motivational love is destroyed for lack of doctrine in the soul.
b. You will never learn enough doctrine to advance in the spiritual life unless you have motivational love for God.
c. Bible doctrine is only going to carry you if you have the right motivation.
d. Reciprocal love for God is the motivation for consistent intake of doctrine.
7. The Simultaneous Advance to PLEROMA Status.
a. There are two categories of simultaneous spiritual advance that God the Holy Spirit supports.
(1) He is our mentor in teaching us doctrine.
(2) In that teaching of doctrine, we learn of God’s love for us in eternity past, in time, at the point of dying, and therefore, we develop reciprocal love motivation to continue to learn doctrine.
b. There are two advancing columns in our soul, which God has provided for following the colors to the high ground of maximum glorification of God. These two columns are the dynamics of our spiritual life. One column is a system of motivation and the other column is a system of doctrine.
c. Maximum glorification of God includes two categories: the winner believer with maximum Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness and the invisible hero motivated by reciprocal love for God. Doctrine and love have to go together. You cannot have one without the other.
d. Each column is designed to protect the mutual flank of the other.
(1) Reciprocal love motivation protects the mutual flank of advancing Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine cannot advance successfully unless it is protected by reciprocal love for God. Doctrine without the right motivation will end up in disaster.
(2) Metabolized doctrine protects the mutual flank of reciprocal love motivation. You have to be motivated by reciprocal love for God to consistently metabolize doctrine.
(3) Doctrine cannot advance without reciprocal love motivation, and reciprocal love motivation cannot advance without Bible doctrine.
(4) A mutual flank demands simultaneous advance.
(5) Doctrine without reciprocal love motivation fails to pass testing for blessing, resulting in discouragement on the one hand and rejection of rebound on the other hand. You have compromised the mutual flank and will suffer punishment and be miserable. You compromise to the point where you lose out on the spiritual life completely.
(6) Reciprocal love motivation without doctrine becomes a system of religious emotionalism and a Christian experience of wrongdoing.
(7) Therefore, doctrine and reciprocity must advance together to reach the high ground of PLEROMA, where they merge into maximum glorification of God.
e. The spiritual life on the high ground has two classifications: PLEROMA and occupation with Christ. Occupation with Christ is the strategic objective, while doctrine and reciprocity merge into PLEROMA status, the second strategic objective. On the other hand, the doctrine of reciprocity merges on the high ground to glorify God both in the appeal trial of Satan and in the function of serving our Lord under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. This merger is the individual impact of the winner believer in the Church Age as a member of the royal family of God. We will never attain the high ground by doctrine alone.
8. Eph 3:16-21.
a. Eph 3:16, “that He may give you on the basis of the riches of His glory that you might become strong with power through the personal agency of the Spirit in our inner being,”
(1) “That you might become strong” is the result of a completed action. The result is the mentorship of the Holy Spirit in action teaching the believer Bible doctrine. The completed action is the Church Age, through the power and ministry of God the Holy Spirit, advancing to a personal sense of destiny—the first tactical objective and starting point of moving to the high ground of spiritual maturity.
(a) If you have doctrine without motivation, you are going to end up in legalism.
(b) If you have motivation without doctrine, you are going to end up in the distortion of love into emotion.
© You have to be strong everywhere in your soul.
(2) “With power” is the power related to God and the spiritual life. The power is the advance of the two columns together. The power is not just the power of Bible doctrine.
(3) “In our inner being” has to do with the stream of consciousness.
(4) God the Holy Spirit teaches us the “all things” of Jn 14:26, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit per the divine mandate of Eph 5:18. Along with teaching us doctrine, God the Holy Spirit motivates personal love for God in our soul.
(5) The believer receives the filling of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. When the believer sins, he loses the filling of the Spirit and the sin nature overruns the command post of the soul. The only solution to carnality is the function of the recovery procedure of 1 Jn 1:9.
(6) Rejection of 1 Jn 1:9 means perpetual carnality, continual punishment until the sinning believer dies the sin face-to-face with death. During the interim the carnal believer is overcome by the four horsemen of apostasy: emotional revolt of the soul, permanent negative volition, blackout of the soul, and scar tissue of the soul.
b. Eph 3:17, “that Christ may be at home in your hearts through doctrine, when you have become firmly rooted and have become established in a secure place in virtue-love,”
(1) Perception of pertinent doctrine is a part of reciprocity or personal love for Christ.
(2) “When you have become firmly rooted” is a reference to basic doctrine related to reciprocal love for God.
(3) The secure place is the high ground of spiritual maturity. Being established in a secure place is the result of the fulfillment of reciprocity, having that permanent love motivation for your advance.
c. Eph 3:18, “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,”
(1) We have four impersonal substantives in this verse. Impersonal substantives cannot be identified without knowing something in the context to which they relate. They relate to the immediate context, which has to do with the doctrine of reciprocity.
(2) Width is the love of God in eternity past related to His omniscience.
(3) Length is the advance of the believer in the Church Age related to the two columns of advance: doctrine and motivation from personal love for God.
(4) Height is execution of the unique plan of God for the Church Age.
(5) Depth is the failure of the carnal believer. The love of God for the carnal believer is not diminished even though he has failed.
d. Eph 3:19, “and get to know the love of Christ which goes beyond academic knowledge, that you may be filled up resulting in all the fullness of blessing from the source of God.”
(1) Why should we get to know the love of Christ? Because our Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of the integrity of God the Father as well as the Holy Spirit.
(2) The ingressive aorist tense indicates the beginning of an action and is translated “get to know.” This is also an infinitive of command.
e. Eph 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or think, on the basis of the power that keeps working in us,”
f. Eph 3:21, “to Him the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus with reference to all generations of this unique dispensation of the dispensations. Amen.”
K. 1 Jn 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.”
1. Introduction.
a. We should love God because God first loved us, but this does not happen with all believers.
b. In eternity past God knew each and every one of us and He loved each and every one of us, and His love for us was not diminished even though He knew everyone of our sins. Therefore, it is important for us to understand this as it relates to the spiritual life of the Church Age.
c. No matter what happens to us by way of difficulty, heartache, or tragedy, we are here for a special purpose and have been designed for selective emphasis. As we meet the problems of selective emphasis, it brings us to a personal sense of destiny. Selective emphasis is prominence in the eyes of God.
2. “We” refers to the believer, who has reached a personal sense of destiny and is advancing toward the high ground of spiritual maturity. In this advance, there is the concept of the promotion system. The promotion system is based on the principle that the greatest victory of the Church Age is promotion to PLEROMA. The second subject nominative is the word “He” referring to God. The two subject nominatives can be classified as a dramatic comparison. 3. The fact there is no direct object (THEOS=God) after the word “love” also makes this very dramatic. This emphasizes God without ever mentioning His name. This is a dramatic Greek idiom.
a. The object of God’s love is the human race in general, but more specifically, the object is those who have believed in Christ.
b. We respond to God’s love with reciprocal love for God.
c. The gnomic present tense of the verb AGAPAO (meaning “to love”) describes a state or condition that perpetually exists. This indicates virtue and integrity in God’s love as a part of the spiritual life and exists in all generations of human history, and is both amplified and intensified in the dispensation of the Church.
d. We love in the Church Age because God loved us. Now we have the opportunity of recognizing what He did with our sins and failures and loving Him because He first loved us.
e. The love of God is parlayed into the love for God, when we learn what our spiritual life is all about.
f. Divine love is not a matter of attraction, but of capacity. Hence, God’s love has perfect, eternal capacity from His divine essence, and we respond with reciprocal love in time. This is our soul capacity. Soul capacity for virtue-love includes: persistence in the filling of the Holy Spirit by rebound when necessary, and continual perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine, so that we duplicate the spiritual life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
g. The believer’s love is reciprocity, which motivates persistent perception of doctrine to form the two column advance (of reciprocal love and Bible doctrine) to the high ground of spiritual maturity (PLEROMA).
4. This statement indicates there is a promotion system for every believer. Any believer in the Church Age can be promoted by God.
a. The promotion system is based on a principle related to the integrity of God: what the righteousness of God commends, the justice of God promotes through greater grace (Jam 4:6).
b. All promotions of the spiritual life are directly related to the love of God. When the righteousness of God commends, the justice of God promotes. This promotion is always a grace promotion.
c. To honor God, we must be honorable. We increase our grace function, our grace living, our grace attitude. We develop a human integrity that honors God.
d. To be promotable, we must be compatible with the love of God, which equals the integrity of God. That means fellowship with God.
e. Compatibility with the love of God comes through the grace of God.
f. If God does not promote us, we are not promoted.
g. Jam 4:6, 10, “He gives greater grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God makes war against the arrogant believer, but He gives grace to the humble believer.’” “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will promote you.”
h. All promotions are grace promotions.
(1) All promotions come through the function of the love of God with emphasis on the grace of God.
(2) All promotions come from persistence in perception of doctrine. Promotion in the spiritual life is not based on spiritual gifts. Promotion is your relationship to God and future status quo for all eternity.
(3) All promotions come from reciprocity—reciprocal love for God motivation.
(4) A believer who is promoted is grace-oriented. God never promotes any believer under any arrogance sin, like jealousy.
i. Promotion evaluation is accomplished by the righteousness and justice of God. In order for grace to work, there must be righteousness. As long as you have arrogance in your soul, you will never be promoted. If you are not promoted by God, you will inevitably go for self-promotion, which is full of the sins of arrogance.
j. Jesus Christ controls history through the invisible hero who has been promoted. Grace orientation as your motivation and doctrinal orientation are the two column advance to the tactical objective of a personal sense of destiny. Personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind are the two columns which advance to occupation with Christ and PLEROMA status are the strategic objectives. Impersonal love for all mankind is testing in the field of human relationship.
k. God gives grace to the humble believer, and grace makes you promotable. The grace that God gives is grace promotion. Sharing the happiness of God is a grace promotion. Being occupied with Christ and PLEROMA status is a grace promotion.
l. You humble yourself in the presence of the Lord by using the recovery procedure of rebound (1 Jn 1:9).
m. Corporate testing demands maximum humility combined with the grace composites as the ultimate in royal family honor code function and PLEROMA status.
5. The principle of virtue and integrity love as a part of the spiritual life exists in all generations of history, but is intensified and amplified in the Church Age.
6. Since love is a part of the integrity of God, it must also be a part of the spiritual life of the believer. Because God’s love was directed toward us billions of years ago, we now have the chance of responding.
7. In eternity past, God set the pattern for reciprocity. It is revealed to us in time through the infallible word of God.
a. Through divine love in eternity past, the righteousness and justice of God are expressed in grace. This is called the doctrine of antecedent grace.
b. Antecedent grace is the basis for reciprocal love, the fulfillment of reciprocity.
c. God’s love in eternity past is related to His omniscience to provide antecedent love for the human race.
d. In eternity past the love of God divine solutions for mankind are always compatible with His righteousness and justice. In eternity past God provided divine solutions for everything we would ever face in life.
e. Therefore, the absolute righteousness of God is the principle of divine integrity. Divine justice is the function of divine integrity. Divine love is the demonstration of divine integrity as per Rom 5:8.
(1) God’s perfect righteousness is the standard of divine integrity.
(2) God’s perfect justice is the execution of divine integrity. Therefore, when we are punished, we are punished by a combination of righteousness and justice.
(3) God’s perfect love is the motivational factor given to us from His divine integrity plus all the grace solutions of divine integrity.
f. While the righteousness of God approves or disapproves, the justice of God provides blessing or judgment and discipline, and the love of God provides divine solutions, all of which are accomplished by the grace of God.
(1) God’s righteousness and justice may change from blessing to discipline or from discipline to blessing, but God’s love never changes whether we are being punished and disciplined or being blessed.
(2) God’s love provided eternal salvation for the human race based on faith alone in Christ alone. No matter what we do, we cannot lose our salvation, because the love of God is far stronger than any failure we will ever have. The power of the love of God is infinitely greater than our failures, and the love of God is the key to the integrity of God. We do not have the power to change the love of God for us.
(3) God’s love provided the recovery procedure of 1 Jn 1:9 for carnal believers to recover the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. When a believer rejects rebound, he has rejected the love of God. Therefore, he has no motivation for advance in the spiritual life through perception and metabolization of doctrine, and he will not advance spiritually.
(4) God’s love in eternity past provided the basis for reciprocal love for God in time.
(5) In reciprocal love, God’s love becomes the motivation for advance to the high ground of occupation with Christ and PLEROMA status.
8. God is never said to be motivated. God is not motivated toward mankind. God’s love provides motivation for us, but God does not have to be motivated.
a. Introduction.
(1) God motivates us, but we do not motivate God.
(2) Motivation is a human function, not a divine function. Therefore, motivation can only be used of God as an anthropopathism (the use of human words to explain a divine function).
(3) God functions on His eternal integrity with emphasis on the love of God. God’s integrity motivates, and this includes righteousness and justice as well as love. God does not have to be motivated, because He knew all that would ever happen billions of years before it ever occurred.
(4) God operates on the basis of His integrity, not on motivation or emotion, which are strictly creature functions. Motivation has a beginning and an end. God does not have a beginning or an end. God does not have motivation.
(5) Blessing or punishment from God originates from His eternal integrity, which has to do with our attitude toward what He provided.
(6) Divine love is the key to understanding God’s integrity. Omniscience always functioned under the integrity of God, so that divine love is the point of reference, not motivation.
(7) Divine integrity has always existed. Emotion and motivation as creature functions have not always existed.
(8) Good and pure motivation begins with knowledge of Bible doctrine as epignosis.
(a) Human motivation has a beginning in reciprocity, when the word of the Lord is part of the soul. Therefore, human motivation has a love motivation. But it is not isolated love; it is not motivated love; it is love based on doctrine.
(b) God’s eternal integrity motivates the believer, but the believer does not motivate God.
© There is both good and bad motivation; there is both good and bad motivation. None of it belongs to God.
(9) Motivation is the thinking and action of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness.
(10) Summary.
(a) God operates on His integrity, not on motivation.
(b) Motivation is a human function, whether it is emotion or thinking, not a divine function.
© God motivates us; we do not motivate God.
(d) God functions on His eternal integrity with emphasis on the love of God.
(11) Conclusion.
(a) God motivates us through divine revelation of Himself in the infallible word of God.
(b) God makes His motivation perspicuous through the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit, Jn 14:26, “But our Mentor, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will cause you to remember all that I said to you.”
© It is heresy to assign either emotion or motivation to eternal God, because it reduces God to creature status.
(d) God’s love motivates the believer because He first loved us, but the believer’s love does not motivate God.
b. Motivation is a human activity, which God is said to evaluate, 1 Cor 4:5, “Therefore, do not go on judging anything before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things that are in darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each person will receive praise from God.”
c. Motivation is very important fact in our spiritual life, because motivation along with doctrine is the basis for the execution of the spiritual life. Doctrine and motivation from reciprocal love advance together to spiritual maturity.
d. Jam 2:4, “Have you not made distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil motives.”
e. Jam 4:3, “You ask and receive not because you ask from wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
f. God’s love is not described as motivation, but as demonstration, Rom 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.”
g. God is not said to be motivated by love. Motivation requires a beginning, and God’s love always existed without a beginning. God demonstrates what He has always had.
h. It is the believer, who becomes motivated, when he gets to know the love of God.
i. 1 Pet 5:5-7, “Likewise, you (congregation), become subordinate to your pastor; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward each other, and you must, because God makes war against the arrogant believer, but He gives grace to the humble believer. Therefore, by casting all your cares on Him (because He cares for you), you allow yourselves to be humbled under God’s mighty hand, that He may promote you at the proper time.”
(1) Clothing yourself with humility toward each other is a relaxed mental attitude. It means that you should not allow yourselves to be led astray by those in the congregation who think they know more or try to undermine the pastor’s authority.
(2) No one ever learns anything without being humble. If we assume we know it all, we never learn anything. Humility is not humiliation. Being humble is a mental attitude, which recognizes that God has provided everything we will ever need, and we do not need to compete with others or run them down. One of the greatest hindrances to learning doctrine are others Christians; therefore, the need for humility.
(3) Promotion comes through the perception of doctrine. The perception of doctrine comes through the status of humility. God only promotes those who have true humility. The promotion system is also found in Jam 4:6, 10. All promotion of the believer comes through the function of the integrity of God with emphasis on divine love. What the righteousness of God approves, the justice of God promotes from the source of the love of God through greater grace.
(4) We become humble by casting all our anxieties on God, such as, guilt, bitterness, vindictiveness, jealousy, etc.
(5) God gives grace to us by providing pastors to teach the word of God. We have to be humble, be teachable, and want to learn.
(6) All promotion comes through doctrine and reciprocity. You can have a relatively insignificant spiritual gift and be promoted to having a personal sense of destiny, having personal love for God, sharing the happiness of God, being occupied with Christ, and PLEROMA status.
j. Ps 89:14, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Unfailing love and doctrine go before You.”
k. Summary.
(1) Motivation is not a divine attribute, but a human attribute of the believer to encourage staying power in the perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.
(2) The advance to the high ground is accomplished in two columns (positive volition to Bible doctrine and personal love for God) with a mutual flank (they protect each other).
(3) The love of God is divine integrity, while the attributes of God are parts or components of that integrity. The love of God is greater than simply at attribute of something. It is God’s integrity. The love of God has the attributes or composites.
(4) Various parts or attributes are related to the whole, and the whole is the love of God, which is the integrity of God.
(5) God has always functioned on His integrity, which is the love of God, both in eternity past, called antecedent grace, and in time, called temporal grace, and in the future, called eschatological grace
. (6) Therefore, grace is an attribute of the integrity of God, and the integrity of God is the love of God.
(7) Since this love of God is the whole or entirety of divine integrity, the love of God does not increase or decrease, but always remains the same, whether God is punishing us or blessing us.
(8) Since divine integrity is the love of God, both emotion and motivation are not a composite or attribute of God.
(9) Both motivations and emotions are human characteristics used by false teachers to humanize God.
(10) The love of God is more than an attribute of God. God’s love is God’s integrity. Justice is a part of His love, because God has always been fair to us. Righteousness is a part of His love, because true love has the highest possible concepts of how to live, of righteousness. It is a righteousness that is one of the greatest blessings in the world.
(11) We are on a grace basis with the Lord, and when we violate this grace, we are punished beyond anything we can imagine, and there are no exceptions.
9. The fact that God first loved us is seen in the doctrine of unlimited atonement.
a. 1 Jn 2:2, “And He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also the sins of the entire world.” Jesus Christ bore the sins of the entire world in His body on the Cross.
b. 2 Pet 3:9, “And the Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for anyone to perish, but for all to come to a change of thinking (about salvation through faith alone in Christ).” God loves the unbeliever and wants the unbeliever to have eternal salvation.
c. Tit 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all mankind.” Every member of the human race has equal opportunity to have eternal life. Salvation was provided for everyone.
d. 1 Tim 2:6, “(the man Christ Jesus) Who gave Himself as a redeemer, a substitute for all, the testimony to be given at the proper time.”
e. 1 Tim 4:10, “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our confidence on the living God, who is the Savior of all mankind, with emphasis on (most of all, especially, primarily) believers.”
f. Rom 5:6, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died as a substitute for the ungodly.” Cf. Rom 5:8, “But God has and still is demonstrating His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.”
10. The Interpretation of 1 Jn 4:19 From The Standpoint of The Perfect Essence of God.
a. God’s love is eternal; therefore, God’s love has always existed unsustained by Himself or any other source. There never was a time that God’s love did not exist with omniscience. Omniscience knew us from eternity past, and God loved us, knowing all about us.
b. God’s love possesses perfect integrity, which includes incorruptible justice and immutable righteousness.
c. This means that the perfect love of God has no beginning; for His eternal virtue-love has always existed without motivation and without emotion.
d. The love of God always existed. There never was a time when the love of God did not exist. God’s love did not need or have to have motivation or emotion.
e. God’s love can neither be corrupted by creature failure or motivation by creature success.
f. God is absolute truth and veracity. Bible doctrine always existed in the mind of God, which means, that divine love in eternity past was rooted in every form of knowledge that resides in His perfect, eternal, and absolute being.
g. God’s eternal thinking did not include either emotion or motivation; therefore, emotion and motivation are not part of the spiritual life of any dispensation.
h. God is infinite. Therefore, all persons of the Trinity are without boundary or limitation, uniting in themselves those perfections that belong to their co-equal, co-infinite, co-eternal essence.
i. Since divine integrity is maintained by the sovereignty of God plus the incorruptible, infinite, unchanging virtue, God’s love can never be compromised, diminished, or limited by either emotion or a sudden burst of motivation.
j. God’s perfect essence related to His integrity motivates believers, when they have learned and understood the doctrine of divine essence plus the function of divine integrity, which emanates divine love as a point of reference for every believer. It is divine love as the point of reference that motivates every believer.
(1) Therefore, God’s love, which has always existed as the overt manifestation of divine integrity, motivates the believer as part of the spiritual life. (2) The believer responds with reciprocity or reciprocal love for God motivation, which reaches its peak in occupation with Christ.
(3) Because God is infinite, He cannot be complicated by ignorance, or absurdities, or silliness, or emotion, or assignment of motivation to His deity. God has integrity, which is infinitely greater than motivation.
(4) God’s love from His eternal integrity motivates the believer, but the believer’s love does not motivate God.
(5) The integrity of God’s love is eternal. Therefore, it has no beginning. Emotion, motivation, and even human love has a beginning.
(6) Because God is eternal, He gives of His divine love whether there is an occasion or not, whether there is an object or not.
(7) God’s eternal thinking did not include either emotion or motivation. Thinking resides in the soul; emotion resides in the body.
k. Love is a synonym for the integrity of God. The phrase “the love of God” is simply a way of expressing God’s integrity. Love is the nomenclature for the integrity of God. God’s integrity is never motivated because it has always existed. Therefore, God’s love is never motivated because it has always existed.
(1) God’s love has no beginning. God’s love is eternal, because God is eternal. God’s love has always existed as the overt manifestation of integrity.
(2) The believer responds with reciprocal love for God because God’s love never diminishes toward us when we fail. Reciprocity is a key to our motivation to keep going with Bible doctrine and not to tire of learning doctrine. The human love of the believer through Bible doctrine responds with love to the divine love, the integrity of God, which reaches its peak in occupation with Christ. The only true love you will ever know with people is your response to the integrity of those people.
(3) God’s love from His eternal integrity motivates the Church Age, but the believer’s love does not motivate God. It glorifies God, it does not motivate God.
(4) The integrity of God’s love is eternal. Righteousness, justice, and grace are composites or attributes of the love of God. God has a perfect sense of responsibility. God has always taken tremendous responsibility for each member of the human race, since He created each one of us.
(5) Because God is eternal, He gives of His divine love whether there is an occasion or not.
(6) Because God foreknew human sinfulness and failure, He did not cancel or diminish His love for the spiritual dead human race.
(7) God’s love does not have to have an object to exist.
(8) Because God’s love is immutable and eternal, the content and capacity always remain the same. Therefore, God does not begin to love, increase in love, or decrease in love. His love is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
(9) Divine love cannot be bribed by good deeds or patronized by any form of legalism or human merit. This means that the works of Christian service must be the result of the spiritual life rather than trying to get something from God.
(10) God’s love is never disappointed, frustrated, or distracted.
(11) God’s love is not sustained by human attraction (by what He sees overtly), human rapport, human works. God’s love cannot be bought with good behavior.
(12) God’s love for the believer is never turned into any form of antagonism because of our sins and failures.
(13) God loves His own righteousness, which is eternal divine self-esteem, imputes it to the believer, and loves the believer who has it.
(14) While God does not have motivation, believer’s have the potential for
motivation from the transfer of Bible doctrine from the written page of the Scripture to the soul.
(15) Emotion in the body is not part of or the criterion for the spiritual life. Motivation in the soul is the result of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness.
11. David discovered reciprocal love. David is the only man in Scripture said to be a man after God’s own heart, 1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22. He worshipped God through the integrity of God. He was motivated by the love of God. Even though David failed, it did not diminish God’s love for him.
a. Ps 89:14, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; unfailing love and doctrine go before You.”
(1) David worships God through the integrity of God.
(2) God’s unfailing love is the love that motivates us.
(3) Divine blessing does not come from motivation but from the integrity of God.
b. David understood and used rebound after he sinned, Ps 32:5, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my wrongdoing I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, then You forgave the guilt of my sin.”
(1) Divine punishment teaches us how to deal with our failures. To be punished by God is far better than being punished by people. The love of God always punishes in a way that is beneficial.
(2) Punishment from God is the best punishment we will ever receive in life. We should be thankful for divine punishment no matter how much it hurts.
(3) Anytime God punishes us, the justice of God is doing it through the love of God. We hurt and He blesses.
c. Ps 33:4-5, “For the word of the Lord is righteousness and all His work is in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the unfailing love of the Lord.”
(1) When you love something that is right, you will do it.
(2) Human motivation has beginning in reciprocity, when the word of God is a part of the soul.
(3) Divine love is the integrity of God and has certain characteristics like righteousness, justice, and grace.
(4) All true love has righteousness. Men who seduce women have no righteousness.
(5) 2 Cor 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
d. Ps 23:3-6, “He restores my soul [rebound]; He guides me in the wagon tracks of righteousness [the righteousness of the integrity of God]; He rescues me because of His integrity. In addition to this, when I walk through a death-shadowed valley, I fear no evil, because You are with me. In the meantime my cup is overflowing. Emphatically, prosperity and unfailing love shall pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
(1) There is no fear of life and no fear of death; there is nothing but blessing for those who follow the colors in reciprocal love for God. Even dying comes from the integrity of God. Everyone gets a fair shake in dying.
(2) Every believer has a death-shadowed valley and it is nothing to fear, because it is given to us by the integrity of God. The integrity of God is never more gracious than when we are dying.
(3) The believer walks through his very own death-shadowed valley under the doctrine of reciprocity. Therefore, the integrity of God knows the right time to give us our death-shadowed valley. Death is God’s personal decision based on the function of His divine integrity with emphasis on His eternal love. Therefore, our death is God’s victory, but He gives the victory to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(4) The love of God and the blessing that comes from it will pursue us all the days of our life.
(5) This does not say that righteousness and justice shall pursue me all the days of my life, because unfailing love is the whole of the integrity of God and includes righteousness and justice.
(6) No distinction is made in dying between the carnal believer and the spiritual believer, and that is the key to the grace of God and the love of God related to the grace of God in the integrity of God. All members of the family of God are loved by God and the moment the carnal believer dies, grace takes over. The carnal believer goes through his death-shadowed valley with great fear, pain, suffering, and regrets, but all of that ends at the moment of death.
e. Ps 86:15, “But You, Oh Lord, [are] a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in unfailing love and doctrine.”
(1) “Slow to anger” is an anthropopathism, meaning that God never gives up on us.
(2) David recognized the mutual advance of love and doctrine.
(3) The love of God is the integrity of God.
(4) The love for God is the spiritual life of the believer. This is the doctrine of reciprocity.
(5) Where the love for God meets the love of God this is the spiritual status quo of the believer at whatever point this occurs. For example, the love for God may occur as early as the development of the faith-rest drill. Doctrinal orientation and a personal sense of destiny develop as a part of reciprocity. Reciprocity reaches its peak with sharing the happiness of God and occupation with Christ.
(6) The grace of God is where the love of God is expressed and reflected.
(a) If the grace of God is expressed to the carnal believer, that believer is under divine punishment.
(b) If the grace of God is expressed to the believer in rebound, that believer has resumed the spiritual life.
© If the grace of God has resumed on the high ground of PLEROMA status, the believer has become a winner and invisible hero, abounding in unfailing love and doctrine.
f. Ps 145:8, “The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and abounding in unfailing love.”
g. Neh 9:16-17, “And they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; They became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments. They refused to listen. They did not remember Your wonderful deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return them to slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of abundant forgiveness, Gracious and merciful, Slow to anger and abounding in unfailing love; Therefore You did not forsake them.” The integrity of God has never forsaken any believer.
h. Ps 136:1-26 says twenty-six times, “For His unfailing love is eternal.”
(1) Verse 2, “Give thanks to the God of gods for His unfailing love is forever.”
(a) The first use of “God” has to do with God the Father.
(b) The phrase “of gods” has to do with false gods, where God is reduced to the level of a human frame of reference.
(2) Verse 3, “Give thanks to the Lord of lords for His unfailing love is forever.”
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R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740
© 1999, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
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